Assignment 13: Final Project

Painted Beauty

I was aiming for a simple avant garde style beauty portrait. Initially I was going to use 1600 for key and fill lights, but one of the 1600 strobes was unavailable, so we used an 800 and a 3200 on  1/4 power. to make them even.  I played around with a white background and a backlight, but ultimately decided that the holographic board made the background more interesting. The softboxes provided smoothness for the texture of the model's skin and allowed the highlighted points to appear softer as well.

Assignment 12 Shiny Objects

ISO 100, f/25, 1/60 sec

Two 1600 lights were set up  symmetrically on the sides of the table, both raised above. The light on the right side of the table was set at -2 and the light on the left side was set at -1. This created two different intensity of shadows.
Since the shiny object was a mirror there were problems having the reflection look interesting, rather than just capturing the ceiling of the room. I ultimately decided to have the mirror reflect the holographic board. Initially, the entire set up was inside of the light tent, but the lack of shadows made the product seem two-dimensional. 

Option 1: Back light, light with grid to focus on face, black background

Option 2: White background

Model will be used, portrait style in studio.
Neon makeup
Biggest challenge: if dark, to get the light focused on the subject's face. Maybe use a snoot
If light, to get neon to show up.

Assignment 11 Speedlights Part 2

Direct flash on camera Program mode
ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/60 s, ETTL

Flash fill Aperture Priority Mode
Top: ISO 100, f/4.5, 1/5 s, Auto WB, ETTL
Bottom: ISO 100, f/4.5, 1/5 s, Tungsten WB, ETTL

Bounce flash off ceiling in Program mode
ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/60 s, ETTL

Direct flash off camera Program mode
ISO 100, f/5.6, 1/60 s, ETTL

Assignment 10 Speedlight Flash Part 1

ISO 800, f4, 1.3 second, flash on camera (full power)

ISO 2000, f 3.5, 1 second, flash on camera (full power) w/ red gel

ISO 100, f 5.6, 1/80 second, flash off camera (full power) directly above head

ISO 250, f 4, 1/10 second, flash off camera (full power) directly above head w/ orange gel

Christine in the sky with diamonds
ISO 100, f 7, 5 seconds, flash on camera (full power), door open for continuous light to leak in

ISO 200, f3.5, 1/4 second, flash on stand (full power) very close to subject, full power

Assignment 9 Physics of Jaclyn

ISO 100, f11, 6 seconds; Strobe only, multiple bursts (1s, 3s, 5s)
I tried to capture a movement of Jaclyn's arms in distinct places, inspired by Da Vinci's physics illustration. To achieve the distinct placements and not the movement in between I used only a strobe which was fired at one second, three seconds, and five seconds on a 6 second shutter speed.

Assignment 8 Replication

Audrey Hepburn by

The small 10 grid and even smaller snoot helped to focus the key light on the top half of the model's face. The fill light helped to light the model's right side. The hair light was at a high height and facing down on the model's hair.  

Assignment 7: Size Matters

1600 Strobe with Reflector 5’ from subject
ISO 100, 1/60 @ f20
This picture with the strobe and only the reflector has a more defined shadow than the picture below with the white umbrella.  The overall lighting shows more contrast with just the reflector.

1600 Strobe with Reflector and White Umbrella 5'from subject
ISO 100, 1/60 @ f14
This picture taken using the reflector and white umbrella on the strobe gives a much softer, less defined shadow. The overall lighting is more diffused.

1600 Strobe with Reflector and Large Umbrella 8' from subject
ISO 100, 1/60 @ f8

1600 Strobe with Reflector and Small Umbrella 5' from subject
ISO 100, 1/60 @ f11

The first photo taken was the photo with the small umbrella 5' from the subject. From there the lighting with the large umbrella had to match the light given with the small umbrella. At first, we tried to move the large umbrella closer to the subject in order to have the light more concentrated and harsher, as if the it was the small umbrella. The resulting images had lighting that was too diffused. Under Christine's suggestion we moved the large umbrella further back, to 8' from the subject in order to make the area of light that is cast smaller on the subject. The light meter was used to meter for the correct aperture, and we bracketed from there to find the lighting that matched the best.